TAUNTON — Local reaction to the news that convicted murderer and former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez hanged himself ranged from suspicion that he himself was murdered to sympathy for his 4-year-old daughter and fiancee.

Prison authorities in Shirley say they found the 27-year-old Hernandez Wednesday morning — just days after his being acquitted of a 2012 double murder in Boston — hanging from a bedsheet with a bible verse promising eternal life written on his forehead.

Hernandez previously was found guilty of the 2013 shooting death of former friend Odin Lloyd, who had been dating the sister of Hernandez’s fiancee Shayanna Jenkins.

“It’s got to be very disappointing for his daughter and fiancee. That’s completely sad,” said Mary Nix of Taunton.

Nix, 68, said Hernandez probably was convinced he didn’t stand a chance of being granted a new trial in the 2012 shooting conviction.

“I think he was guilty of killing Odin Lloyd, and I don’t know how Jose (Baez, lawyer for Hernandez) thought he could get him off,” she said.

Shawn Bernard, 42, was of two minds regarding the news that Hernandez committed suicide.

“He killed someone and now he’s killed himself. He should have thought before he did it and consulted his family,” said Bernard, a Dorchester native who now lives in Lakeville.

But Bernard then shifted gears and theorized that Hernandez — who during his trial in 2015 was spotted in court with a prominent and fairly new Bloods gang tattoo — might have been the victim of a member of a rival gang.

“I honestly think he got murdered,” Bernard said.

John Oliveira of Fall River said Hernandez saw the handwriting on the wall.

“Even with the second verdict he knew it would never be overturned. I think he’s been wanting to do this instead of spending the rest of his life in jail,” Oliveira, 38, said.

Oliveira also theorized Hernandez killed himself Wednesday to coincide with the White House visit that afternoon by the New England Patriots team with President Donald Trump.

“It was the perfect day. I think he wanted to steal the headlines. I think that had something to do with it,” Oliveira said.

Jezeiry Rodriguez, 16, surmised that Hernandez killed himself because he knew he would never be able to raise his daughter.

“He was probably upset that he wouldn’t be able to be a father,” she said.

But Rodriguez also said she’s open to the idea that someone might have killed Hernandez in his cell.

Her mother, Lizzie Rosa, said she sympathizes with Hernandez’s mother.

“As a human being I feel bad, because I’m a mother too,” Rosa, 37, said. “I’m just feeling the pain his mom’s feeling.”

David Farrar, however, said no one should feel too badly that Hernandez took his life by his own hand.

“It probably saved us a lot of time and money,” Farrar, 70, said, referring to taxpayers footing the bill for court-case appeals and to cover the expense of keeping a prisoner with a life sentence alive and well.